Order of Painting

Definitely not trying to suede you to do something you're not comfortable with. Also I'll add when I do paint. I try to always do as many adjacent panels as I can. I panel paint to avoid any tape lines and I think it saves time(it probably doesnt)

I am already think in those terms
 
I have painted both solid and metallic colors with the cars completely disassembled. No issues whatsoever IF you make sure to orient the panels like they will be on the vehicle (metallic paints mainly) AND you follow a strict protocol. Exact same settings, PSI, spray gun, overlap, number of coats, etc.
 
I have painted both solid and metallic colors with the cars completely disassembled. No issues whatsoever IF you make sure to orient the panels like they will be on the vehicle (metallic paints mainly) AND you follow a strict protocol. Exact same settings, PSI, spray gun, overlap, number of coats, etc.
I had the hood and trunk lid hanging vertical on the Coronet.... :oops:
 
Hanging a decklid and hood vertical with solid colors can help reduce trash in the paint imho.

When painting a body shell I like to do it on the rotisserie and rotate the shell for best visibility and access. Makes it easier imho.

Don
 
I painted a yellow a few years back - covered like crap ! I had painted a yellow a year earlier and didn’t have a problem . My paint guy said it was because of government mandates removing stuff from the mix - lead maybe ? Not sure but he told me if I ever paint yellow again to plan on 5-6 coats
 
I painted a yellow a few years back - covered like crap ! I had painted a yellow a year earlier and didn’t have a problem . My paint guy said it was because of government mandates removing stuff from the mix - lead maybe ? Not sure but he told me if I ever paint yellow again to plan on 5-6 coats

Chad’s advice substantiated. He said many of his customers will switch to Motobase for yellow for the coverage as it is the lesser of the evils.
 
The last yellow I painted was gm butternutt. I painted this in pieces over the course of a year. I did this in pro-spray that I got from chad. I thought it covered awesome! I know some on here hate prospray, but I don't recall any issues I had with it. Motobase is now my go to. I trust chad and his opinions on paint brands.

damn, sorry for posting pics in someone elses thread...bored at work.

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The last yellow I painted was gm butternutt. I painted this in pieces over the course of a year. I did this in pro-spray that I got from chad. I thought it covered awesome! I know some on here hate prospray, but I don't recall any issues I had with it. Motobase is now my go to. I trust chad and his opinions on paint brands.

damn, sorry for posting pics in someone elses thread...bored at work.

View attachment 19257
I liked the ProSpray as well, never had any issues with it. Motobase is even better in my limited experience.
Personally, I like seeing pictures of people's work. It also is a help and encouragement to newbies to see the recommendations given here actually work.
 
I had the hood and trunk lid hanging vertical on the Coronet.... :oops:
I've painted panels every which way...only time I have had an issue was with temperature and not the proper reducers.

edit: I do try to orientate them how they will be hung, but sometimes it doesnt always work out.
 
Hanging a decklid and hood vertical with solid colors can help reduce trash in the paint imho.

When painting a body shell I like to do it on the rotisserie and rotate the shell for best visibility and access. Makes it easier imho.

Don
Would you mind going into more detail on your procedure? Start with the side vertical, paint that, then rotate 90 degrees to the top vertical, then another 90 degree turn until the other side is vertical, upside down?
 
Would you mind going into more detail on your procedure? Start with the side vertical, paint that, then rotate 90 degrees to the top vertical, then another 90 degree turn until the other side is vertical, upside down?
No both sides are painted with the car sitting normal on the rotisserie. Only the roof etc is painted with the car rotated 90 degrees. Hope that makes sense. The car is never inverted.

Don
 
You don't have to do that many coats, you just need to get full coverage, HOWEVER, what I tend to do is this. I make sure I gain full coverage first, then I let it fully flash, typically hours and sometimes overnight. This typically takes 2-4 coats but I almost always do 3 regardless of the color unless I know for sure it has full coverage because I have this issue where I tend to miss a spot, which typically is the bottom of a door edge lol. Sometimes that third coat is me walking around with a sun gun just blending in spots, checking edges etc etc etc. I recommend doing this with the lights off and a sun gun in hand, I found that the sun gun is a life saver for me in finding spots I missed.

Then after it sits all night I will go over it with the foam sanding pads to remove any trash from the paint job, typically I just scuff the whole body down, I then blow it off very well, and tack it multiple times. After sanding, I always put down two more coats to cover up all of the sanding scratches. These last two coats are always very thin coats, I call them orientation coats.

Let's discuss the difference between the two phases. the first round of applying base is strictly for coverage. I need to make sure it has coverage and that's the primary goal. If it's a metallic and I have some stripes or the metallic isn't as I want it to be I don't even worry about it. because I know I am going to sand it and re-spray anyways. I find that with auto art the last two coats will correct any blemishes anyways, so I don't worry about it. Then my final two coats are as I would call my orientation coat, the whole purpose of these two coats is for me to apply them as even as I possibly can and make it look as good as I possibly can, in mind I don't have to be concerned with coverage because I already achieved that, I find that it makes it easier on me and even new painters to separate the mindset between the two operations when trying to get the best possible finish you can get. I also don't feel like those second to coats put on that much additional material as it's more of a medium application. Please make sure you get all of those sand scratches covered in this phase, this is typically why I do two coats here, one would actually probably be enough. But, when painting a expensive car I like to be over cautious.

Another advantage I see to this application process is that you can let your first round sit overnight and that gives it a good amount of time to flash off all of the solvents, typically on my second round I do not wait as long, I give it roughly 2-4 hours depending on the situation and go to clear.

In a collision environment I tend to do three coats, after the second one I tend to really look it over, scuff any trash out and then do a third coat to make it uniform and then just go right to clear, very different scenarios and really it can be applied to any job to achieve the results you need.

I find the color makes a big difference in the application process I choose as well, If I am doing a black car, I will only do two coats and let it sit overnight, then scuff and apply one more coat.

If I get a tricky silver I may apply 2 coats on my orientation round and then if I see a spot I don't like I may blend out a extra coat in the stubborn area.

So I guess I'm just saying I struggle with the how many coats will I need to apply question because everything above is considered when I am painting a car.
 
Ok, lets touch base on the original question.

I like painting the car in pieces, it's easier for overspray control and easier to do a better job this way.
I wouldn't paint it as discussed because there's really no advantage, my suggestion is to try painting it in pieces and assemble the whole car.
Lets say the door to quarter doesn't match, well then tape off those panels and blend the two together and just repaint those panels. Chances of having to need to repaint everything should be pretty slim.

If you are spraying the jambs or just the exterior really how much time are you saving vs just painting the whole panel? The process tends to be the process so why not take the chance and do the inside and outside at the same time? If you get it all right and everything goes well, you just did the car with less steps, less taping. Less struggling to hide tape lines etc etc. overall I just think you get a better job.

Now if I were doing a candy job or a real tricky tri stage I may not want to do it this way.

I am guessing the risk of chipping or having a issue while assembling could be a higher risk than having a color match issue. ESPECIALLY if you follow the process I mentioned above because there's no way you shouldn't have full coverage using the method I discussed.

Both of these combined just tend to be the procedure I prefer when everything is right to allow this to happen, sometimes customer budgets would get in the way for me as well because if we were doing it in pieces like this that means they had to be prepared to finance the whole process at that time. Point is, everything has to be factored in for each job.

I'm curious peoples opinions on both of the methods I used that I listed above, it just seemed to work really well for us here.
 
One more thing to add. the sanding method started when I did one car that I just painted as if it were a collision job and didn't sand it between phases, this car bit me because when I sanded and buffed I had a few panels I had to repaint because of a colored dirt spec that popped through. At that point I always sanded everything.

I also never had a great painting environment which also is a big factor in this.
 
This is probably something I should have broke down a long time ago on this forum and thought it was a good opportunity, I really feel separating the phases could help simplify the process for many. But maybe not every project deserves that much attention.

So this implies that you need to activate the base correct
 
On the 63 Corvette I just did this is the process I used:

Reduced epoxy sealer then set overnight.
Denib/ sand sealer next morning then apply 3 coats base and let it set overnight.
Denib base next morning, blend in base over sanding marks, spray clear that afternoon.

This seemed to work well for me.

I have a cheap Astro sun gun and I use it as Chad said with the booth lights off. Nibs etc really jump out.

Don
 
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